232 State Horticultural Society. 



"that owing to the present financial condition of the Society, the Secre- 

 tary's salary be suspended for the present year, unless the asked for ap- 

 propriation by the Legislature be obtained." 



At the next annual meeting, 1875, the Treasurer sent in no report, 

 nor any balance on hand, but sent word that he was sick and asked that 

 a substitute be appointed. Mr. J. C. Evans was accordingly appointed 

 Treasurer without books, without money, and of course he could make 

 no report. The Centennial, 1876, came on apace, but still no Treasurer's 

 report. Such a condition may seemi surprising with such men as Mudd 

 and Alien, Hall, Muir, King and Lewis, Riley, Wm. Stark, Bush and 

 Swallow holding all kinds of offices, serving on all kinds of committes, 

 reading many papers, yet the treasury in this miserable condition for 

 three years. Mr. President, had you appointed a committee to examine 

 into the condition of the treasury in this early day, your committee would 

 have struck a hot trail. 



Careless or negligent or both, these officers may have been ; that 

 they were dishonest is no where charged in the record. Incompetent book- 

 keepers, too, they may have been, but that they were unfaithful is not re- 

 corded. At the close of the first day's session of this '76 meeting a special 

 financial committee, consisting of J. C. Evans, H. T. Mudd and G. W. 

 Gage, was appointed to examine all accounts, but especially the accounts 

 of the Ex-Treasurer of 1873. In December of this year the Treasurer 

 simply reported $19.00 from his predecessor, and a balance of $19.30 on 

 hand. We know not what the special committee accomplished, for no re- 

 port is found. I have not mentioned the name of this Treasurer, for it 

 would do no good to open up the case in these days of "statute limita- 

 tions" and "constitutional rights." 



In 1877 no meeting. The minutes of the January meeting, 1878 were 

 lost for several years, but parts of them found and published in pamphlet 

 by L. A. Goodman, after he became Secretary in 1883, but no part of 

 the Treasurer's report was found. But let no one connect him with any 

 of the mishaps, for up to 1881 he was just one of the committee on 

 flowers — simply that and nothing more, officially. 



The report of the January meeting, 1879, is not in our collection. 

 But I learned from Mr. F. A. Sampson, Secretary of the State Historical 

 Society at Columbia, that it is in the 13th Annual Agricultural Report, 

 that the only reference to the Treasurer's report is "Prof. Riley, Treas- 

 urer during 1877, presented his report for that year. Prof. Riley donated 

 to the Society the amount of balance due him." If some one will find 

 the 13th Agricultural Report and place it in our library in the Secretary's 

 office at Kansas City, we will then have a complete record, at least so 



